Improved floor-covering



A I W rit UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANS ON H. PLATT, OF YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO.

IMPROVED FLOOR-COVERING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 415,937, dated January17,1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANSON H. PLATI, of the village of Yellow Springs,Greene county, Ohio, have invented a new and improved method of coveringfloors with figured or ornamented paper printed with water-colors as asubstitute for oil-cloths and carpets; and I hereby declare thefollowing to be a full and exact description of the same.

In my invention I apply figured paper to floors as a substitute foroilcloths and carpets in two different ways: first, by attaching firmlyto the floor with flour-paste, and, secondly, by

tacking itdown in widths, as in the case of ordinary carpets, the formerbeing called stationary floor-covering and the latter movable,

the following being the manner in which each sort is prepared andapplied.

In the application of the stationary floorcovering I first paste a layerof some sort of cheap refuse paper all over the floor to be finished,and let it dry well before applying the figured paper. I then take wallor any other figured paper printed in water-colors and cut off lengthsto fit the size of the room, matching the figures and trimming one edgeof each length to the colors. I next make a straight pencil-mark acrossthe floor from one side of the room to the other, about an inch fartherfrom the wall at which I am to commence than the width of the paper tobe used, as a guide in the application of the paste to the floor, andwith a large, long, soft paintbrush I cover the strip marked ofi' uponthe fioor thoroughly with a coat of good flour-paste. Then, placing alength of the paper upon the dry fioor parallel with the pencil-mark,figured side down, I applya coat of the paste also to the back of it,and, turning it over very carefully, I place one end upon the pastedfloor, while'the other end is raised, and, graduallylowering it, Irub itdown very faithfully as it comes to the floor with the flat hand,placing a sheet of strong heavy brown paper between the hand and the wetpaper to prevent soiling the colors, and then proceed with the otherlengthsin the same manner until the whole floor is covered. When thepaper is well dried and hard I dissolve half a pound of white glue, ifthe colors of the paper are light, and the same quantity of common glueif they are dark, in one gallon of warm water, and when well dissolvedand cool I apply a coat of it to the paper with the same brush used inpasting, well cleansed, passing the brush very lightly over it, andgenerally but once in a place, lest the colors should run or mix, andwhen this coat is dry I apply a second coat of the same sort and in thesame way, only much more freely. After these coats are well dried I mixtogether three parts of good copal-varnish and one part of boiledlinseed-oil, and with a soft varnish-brush apply from two to six coatsas fast as theywill dry, the number depending upon the wear to which theroom is to be subjected, and this completes the process for preparingand putting down the stationary floor-covering.

In the absence of white glue I use gum-arabic as a substitute; but it ismore expensive and does not make so good a finish.

The movable paper fioor-coveringis prepared in the following manner: Itake a piece of paper of any desirable lengthsay twenty or thirtyyards--from half a yard to several yards wide, as may be needed, andvaryingin thickness from heavy brown hardware-paper to that of lightpasteboard, and made of good stock, so as to be strong, and printuponone side of it with water-colors figures or ornamental designs to fancy,and then treat or finish the figured side with glue, copal -varnish, andboiled linseed-oil, precisely as I do the stationory floor-coveringalready described, and apply to the under or unfigured side of it onecoat of glue and one coat of boiled. linseed-oil, and it is ready foruse.

The movable carpeting or floor-covering is attached to the floor bymeans of tacks in the usual way, and may be taken up at pleasure, and,like the stationary covering, will wear indefinitely, and always appearnew and bright by giving it a coat of. the varnish and linseedoil twicea year--sprin g and fall.

The movable floor-covering is also a very valuable article for manyother purposes besides covering fioors, such as covering coun ters,trunks, tables, writing-desks, the manufacture of bandlooxes, 82:0. 5and the glue, copal varnish, and boiled linseed-oil, which impart to itits water-proof qualities, may also be applied to paper printed inwater-colors when used for any other purpose, especially to the innerpapered walls of rooms, giving to them a very brilliant and beautifulappearance, and rendering them capable of being washed ofi at pleasure,and of lasting a lifetime and. still appearing bright and new.

The object in first covering the floor to be finished with a layer ofrefuse papers is to render it smoother, and furnish a better surfaceupon which to apply the figured paper. The double pasting is to preventany dry spots between the floor and the paper, which might cause thelatter to cleave from the former. The coats of glue are to form a hardand impervious coat over the paper to prevent the oil and turpentine ofthe varnish from penetrating it and spoiling the colors, as theyinstantly would do without such coats; The coats of varnish andlinseed-oil form a hard, glassy, water-proof surface upon the paper, andrender it durable and capable of being washed off at pleasure withoutinjury to the subjacent colors,and the coat of glue and linseed-oilapplied to the under surface of the movable floor-covering is to preventthe action of the moisture or dampness upon the paper from the floorbeneath.

Floors covered with a well-selected paper, and the room next the wallsurrounded with a neat border, and finished with the glassy Water-proofcompound, formed by the glue, varnish, and

linseed-oil, present a beauty and brilliancyunknown to carpets.

The entire process of finishing floors in this way is so simple that bythe aid of a card of printed directions the whole labor of putting downthe stationary covering may be done by the members of the household, theonly outlay being for materials, whichv will not exceed ten or fifteencents per square yard.

A whole house of ordinary size, containing half a dozen rooms, withhalls, stairs, closets, and all, can be very neatly and tastefullyfinished in this way, so as to last many years, at an outlay which wouldbe necessary to cover one floor of medium size witha carpet of averagequality, and it is a safe estimate to say that the interest of the moneynecessary to carpet any number of rooms for any given number of yearswill keep the same rooms or floors beautifully covered by this process.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-- The application and use of figured or ornamented paper printed withwater-colors to floors as a substitute foroil-cloth and carpets, asherein described, whether stationaryor movable.

ANSON H. PLATT.

Witnesses:

J. W. HAMILTON, G. L. PLATT.

